A metabolomics study: Could plasma metabolites be a guide for the prevention of tamsulosin side effects?

BACKGROUND: The understanding of precision medicine, which aims for high efficacy and low toxicity in treatments, has gained more importance with omics technologies. In this study, it was aimed to reach new suggestions for low-toxicity treatment by clarifying the relationship between tamsulosin side effects and metabolome profiles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Plasma samples of control and tamsulosin-treated rats were analyzed by LC-Q-TOF/MS/MS. MS/MS data was processed in XCMS software for the identification of metabolite and metabolic pathway analysis. Data were classified with MATLAB 2019b for multivariate data analysis. 34m/z values were found to be significantly different between the drug and control groups (P≤0.01 and fold analysis≥1.5) and identified by comparing METLIN and HMDB databases. RESULTS: According to multivariate data analysis, α-Linolenic Acid, Thiamine, Retinoic acid, 1.25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3-26.23-Lactone, L-Glutamine, L-Serine, Retinaldehyde, Sphingosine 1-phosphate, L-Lysine, 23S.25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3, Sphinganine, L-Cysteine, Uridine 5'-diphosphate, Calcidiol, L-Tryptophan, L-Alanine levels changed significantly compared to the control group. Differences in the metabolisms of Retinol, Sphingolipid, Alanine-Aspartate-Glutamate, Glutathione, Fatty Acid, Tryptophan, and biosynthesis of Aminoacyl-tRNA, and Unsaturated Fatty Acid have been successfully demonstrated by metabolic pathway analysis. According to our study, vitamin A and D supplements can be recommended to prevent side effects such as asthenia, rhinitis, nasal congestion, dizziness and IFIS in the treatment of tamsulosin. Alteration of aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis and sphingolipid metabolism pathways during tamsulosin treatment is effective in the occurrence of nasal congestion. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides important information for tamsulosin therapy with high efficacy and low side effects in precision medicine.

Interactions of selected organic molecules with a blue phosphorene monolayer: self-assembly, solvent effect, enhanced binding and fixation through coadsorbed gold clusters.

In this paper we investigate the interaction between a pristine blue phosphorene monolayer and selected organic molecules like amino acids and nucleic acid bases. These molecules are bound to the substrate by a weak van der Waals interaction leading to their physisorption. When isolated, they tend to orient themselves parallel to the surface and are located in flat minima with very low libration frequencies; thus the electronic structures of the substrate and physisorbed molecules are not affected except for relative shifts. Even though the regular self-assembly of these molecules on the pristine blue phosphorene cannot be realized under this weak interaction, only their irregular coating of the substrate can occur due to increased intermolecular coupling. In a solvent like water, the weak binding energy is further decreased. Gold adatoms and gold clusters can form strong chemical bonds with pristine blue phosphorene and modify its electronic and magnetic state depending on the coverage. While full coverage of a blue phosphorene monolayer by gold adatoms leads to instabilities followed by clustering, relatively lower coverage can attribute very interesting magnetic and electronic states, like a spin gapless semiconductor. When bound to the gold clusters already adsorbed on the blue phosphorene monolayer, amino acid and nucleic acid base molecules form relatively strong chemical bonds and hence can be fixed to the surface; they are reoriented to gain self-assembly character and the whole system acquires new functionalities.

Novel chemometrics­assisted spectroscopic methods for diagnosis and monitoring of invasive ductal carcinoma in breast tissue.

OBJECTIVES: Early diagnosis of breast cancer is extremely important because it is the most common female cancer and a leading cause of cancer death in adult women. In this study, it is aimed to create Raman mapping with developed chemometrics­assisted Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy methods for the diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in breast tissue samples. METHODS: Samples were deparaffinized and 20­micron layers of each tissue were located on a coverslip. Mapping of both healthy and cancerous tissues were performed by exposing them to Raman laser at 532 and 758 nm while excitation was recorded at wavenumbers in range of 100-4,000 cm-1. Orthogonal partial least square (OPLS) algorithm was applied to evaluate obtained Raman spectra. Latent variable was selected to explain the whole model. RESULTS: Healthy and IDC tissues were accurately and precisely clustered with Raman mapping and obtained results were compared to those obtained by means of histopathology and FT-IR methods. It is claimed that the proposed method has a great potential in clustering and separating IDC tissues from the healthy ones. CONCLUSION: This novel, rapid, precise, easy and objective diagnosis method may be an alternative to conventional diagnostic methods for IDC in breast tissue (Fig. 5, Ref. 22).

Electronic and magnetic properties of monolayer α-RuCl3: a first-principles and Monte Carlo study.

Recent experiments revealed that monolayer α-RuCl3 can be obtained by a chemical exfoliation method and exfoliation or restacking of nanosheets can manipulate the magnetic properties of the materials. In this paper, the electronic and magnetic properties of an α-RuCl3 monolayer are investigated by combining first-principles calculations and Monte Carlo simulations. From first-principles calculations, we found that the spin configuration of FM corresponds to the ground state for α-RuCl3, however, the other excited zigzag oriented spin configuration has an energy of 5 meV per atom higher than the ground state. The energy band gap is found to be 3 meV using PBE functionals. When the spin-orbit coupling effect is taken into account, the corresponding energy gap is determined to be 57 meV. We also investigate the effect of the Hubbard U energy terms on the electronic band structure of the α-RuCl3 monolayer and revealed that the band gap increases approximately linearly with increasing U value. Moreover, spin-spin coupling terms (J1, J2, and J3) have been obtained using first-principles calculations. By benefiting from these terms, Monte Carlo simulations with a single site update Metropolis algorithm have been implemented to elucidate the magnetic properties of the considered system. Thermal variations of magnetization, susceptibility and also specific heat curves indicate that monolayer α-RuCl3 exhibits a phase transition between ordered and disordered phases at the Curie temperature of 14.21 K. We believe that this study can be utilized to improve two-dimensional magnetic materials.

Vitamin E treatment enhances erythrocyte deformability in aged rats.

The harmful effects of aging on blood rheology have been well known. These effects in the aging have been found to be associated with an increase in oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to seek whether treatment of vitamin E as a potent antioxidant could improve the age-related haemorheological abnormalities. For this purpose, male Wistar rats at the age of 3 and 24 months were used. The following parameters were evaluated: red blood cell (RBC) deformability, aggregation, plasma viscosity, vitamin E level, total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS) and oxidative stress index (OSI), and the following results were obtained. First, aging was associated with a decrease in RBC deformability and increase in RBC aggregation and plasma viscosity. Second, compared with the young group, while plasma TOS levels and OSI were found to be significantly increased in aged rats, there was no significant change in their plasma TAS level. Third, vitamin E administration produced significant improvement in RBC deformability and decrement in TOS and OSI values in aged rats with respect to young and aged control groups. We did not find any significant effect of vitamin E treatment on RBC aggregation in both young and aged rats and finally, we found a significantly lower plasma vitamin E level in aged rats than in young rats. In conclusion, these findings suggest that blood rheology impairs with age and vitamin E has ameliorating effects on age-induced haemorheological abnormalities especially in RBC deformability, probably by reducing the increased oxidative stress in old age.

A new single-layer structure of MBene family: Ti2B.

In this manuscript, we have carried out a combined study of density functional theory and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations for a thorough examination of a single-layer (SL) Ti2B structure. On the basis of first-principles, spin-polarized density functional calculations, we showed that a free standing SL-Ti2B structure is dynamically and thermally stable. The atomic structure, phonon spectrum, electronic and magnetic properties of the SL-Ti2B structure are analyzed. In order to determine ground state, the structure of Ti2B is optimized for four types of spin oriented configurations, namely ferromagnetic (FM), antiferromagnetic Néel, antiferromagnetic Zigzag and antiferromagnetic Stripy and non-magnetic states. We found that the spin configuration FM corresponds to the ground state for SL-Ti2B. We also found that the Raman-active modes are softening in the antiferromagnetic cases. On the basis of these results, MC simulations show that the magnetic susceptibility, thermal variations of magnetization, and specific heat curves of Ti2B exhibit a phase transition between paramagnetic and FM phases at the Curie temperature of 39.06 K. While SL-Ti2B possess a little out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy, it has not any in plane magnetic anisotropy energy.

Spectrofluorimetric Determination of α-Tocopherol in Capsules and Human Plasma.

A simple, sensitive and rapid spectrofluorimetric method for determination of α-tocopherol in pharmaceutical capsule and human plasma was developed and validated. The native fluorescence of α-tocopherol was measured at 334 nm with excitation at 291 nm, after extraction of α-tocopherol from human plasma hexane:dichloromethane mixture. The calibration curves were linear (R≥0.9993) in the concentration range of 0.25-2.5 µg/ml of α-tocopherol in both standard solutions and plasma samples. The developed method was directly and easily applied for determination of α-tocopherol in the plasma of healthy volunteers and different type of bladder cancer and stomach cancer patients and also pharmaceutical capsule.

Determination of 17 ß-Estradiol in Rabbit Plasma by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detection.

This article describes gas chromatography-flame ionization detection method for determination of 17 ß-estradiol in rabbit plasma. 17 ß-estradiol and internal standard progesterone were extracted from plasma using liquid-liquid extraction method. Linearity was found between 0.25 and 20 µg/ml (r(2)=0.994) for plasma samples. Intra-day and inter-day precision, expressed as the relative standard deviation were less than 5.5%, and accuracy (relative error) was less than 3.5%. The mean recovery of 17 ß-estradiol samples was 94.4%. The limits of detection and quantification of method for plasma samples were 0.10 µg/ml and 0.15 µg/ml, respectively. Also, clinically used other 10 drugs were investigated to check for potential interferences and the method was successfully applied to the determination of 17 ß-estradiol in New Zealand white rabbits.

Pharmacokinetics of florfenicol in the plasma of Japanese quail.

AIM: To determine the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of florfenicol in the plasma of healthy Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). METHODS: Sixty-five quail were given an I/V and I/M dose of florfenicol at 30 mg/kg bodyweight (BW). A two-period sequential design was used, with a wash-out period of 2 weeks between the different routes of administration. Concentrations of florfenicol in plasma were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). RESULTS: A naïve pooled data analysis approach for the plasma concentration-time profile of florfenicol was found to fit a non-compartmental open model. After I/V administration, the mean residence time (MRT), mean volume of distribution at steady state (Vss), and total body clearance of florfenicol were 12.0 (SD 0.37) h, 8.7 (SD 0.22) L/kg, and 1.3 (SD 0.08) L/h/ kg, respectively. After I/M injection, the MRT, mean absorption time (MAT), and bioavailability were 12.3 (SD 0.37) h, 0.2 (SD 0.02) h, and 79.1 (SD 1.79)%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The time for the concentration of florfenicol to fall below the probable effective concentration of 1 microg/ ml of approximately 10 h is sufficient for the minimum inhibitory concentration needed for many bacterial isolates. Further pharmacodynamic studies in quail are needed to evaluate a suitable dosage regimen.

Pharmacokinetics of florfenicol after intravenous and intramuscular administration in New Zealand White rabbits.

The pharmacokinetic disposition and bioavailability of florfenicol (FF) were determined after single intravenous (i.v.) and intramuscular (i.m.) administrations of 25mg/kg b.w. to ten healthy New Zealand White rabbits. Plasma FF concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The plasma pharmacokinetic values for FF were best described by a one-compartment open model. The elimination half-life (t(1/2beta)) was different (p<0.05) however, the area under curve (AUC) was similar (p>0.05) after i.v. and i.m. administrations. FF was rapidly eliminated (t(1/2beta) 1.49+/-0.23 h), slowly absorbed and high (F, 88.75+/-0.22%) after i.m. injection. In addition, FF was widely distributed to the body tissues (V(ss) 0.98+/-0.05 L/kg) after i.v. injection. In this study the time that plasma concentration exceeded the concentration of 2 microg/mL was approximately 6h. For bacteria with MIC of 2 microg/mL, frequent administration at this dose would be needed to maintain the concentration above the MIC. However, it is possible that rabbit pathogens may have MIC values less than 2 microg/mL which would allow for less frequent administration. Further studies are necessary to identify the range of MIC values for rabbit pathogens and to identify the most appropriate PK-PD parameter needed to predict an effective dose.